The stuff is still shooting up everywhere and it’s not the best look, either, in some places resembling jail walls.

Other councils have banned Colorbond fences, especially when seen from the street, and favour timber or brick or a combination of both. Albury won’t allow it in new subdivisions and neither will a new estate at Tamworth, which says the covenant was put in place to ensure housing reflected the prestigious nature of the development and to blend housing more naturally into the environment. Sydney councils like Parramatta have Colorbond bans in place and Penrith also gives it a miss.

But it’s still open slather in Orange and the stuff is everywhere you look, particularly in the new areas, which is a shame.

It’s fine to use for backyards but fronting the street is pretty ugly and the council should do something rather than allowing hundreds of miles of this stuff to be put up, including along the distributor road where it’s thriving. People with a Colorbond fence could tart it up with some treated pine lattice or screen it with some greenery.

That would make a huge difference.

It’s generally accepted Orange was named after the Dutch Prince of Orange by Surveyor-General and explorer Thomas Mitchell after Mitchell and he were aides-de-camp on the Duke of Wellington’s staff in the Peninsular war against Napoleon.

But there’s another less-accepted theory that Governor-General Augustus Fitzroy visiting the district in 1846 saw wattle in full bloom everywhere and was so impressed he said ‘call it Orange.’ Well, the naming theory was probably wrong but there’s no doubt the district looks impressive with the wattle now in full bloom. 

Prisoners locked up in the slammer at Orange police station are dished up meals from Macca’s but it would be interesting to know what’s on their menu.

For breakfast they could probably have an English brekkie wrap, sausage and egg muffin, hotcakes with butter and syrup, or a spinach and feta wrap with a couple of hash browns. Maybe an Aussie barbecue angus, big mac, chicken and pineapple burger or grilled chicken bacon deluxe burger for lunch while a special treat for dinner could be the new warm chicken salad with crispy or grilled chicken, red cabbage and plump grape tomatoes that Macca’s says is surprisingly delicious. Or there’s the new chicken and spicy mayo wrap with grilled chicken and tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers. The prisoners’ meals could finish with a hot fudge sundae, hot apple pie. It almost makes you want to get arrested and locked up so you can savor some of Macca’s best at taxpayer’s cost.

With nearly as many referees on the ground as players and the multi-million dollar bunker, has anything in rugby league really changed for the better? 

Quick-witted former Prime Minister Sir Bob Menzies after watching his first Test between Australia and Great Britain in Sydney in 1962 told his hosts: “I read the rules of this strange game last night but there are some points I don’t understand.

“They immediately offered to make me a referee.”